Augmented reality systems allow a user to view augmented content spatially positioned in their physical environment. The very nature of augmented reality and how augmented reality is delivered means that the augmented content is private to the user. People who are not wearing an augmented reality device or viewing through an augmented reality device cannot see the spatial position of an augmented reality system user's augmented content. Additionally, users of an augmented reality device may use an exclusive augmented reality environment. In an exclusive augmented reality environment a user only has access to the user's own augmented reality content and have limited to zero access to other user's environments.
An issue arises when people communicate with users operating in an augmented reality environment. Since the communicating people are unaware of the spatial position of the user's augmented reality content, the communicating people may unwittingly position themselves behind the augmented reality content. As a result, a user operating in an augmented reality environment may not see the person who is trying to communicate and inadvertently not acknowledge the person. From the point of view of the person trying to communicate, the impression of the user in the augmented reality environment could be that of being rude and ignoring attempts to communicate.
One method of addressing the problems described above uses face detection to detect faces of people communicating with an augmented reality user, and then moves elements of the augmented reality content so as not to interfere with interpersonal interactions. Specifically the method moves the augmented reality content in an up and outwardly direction, away from the bottom centre of the frame when a face is detected. The method moves the augmented reality content in this direction because when faces are in frame their body usually occupies the bottom of the frame. A limitation of such methods is that such may produce an undesirable result in the real world. For example, in the scenario of a user in a crowded environment, such as public transport, there may be instances where faces are detected but without the intention to interact with the user. This would unnecessarily modify the user's augmented reality content by repositioning the content higher in the frame; affecting the user experience.
Another method of addressing the problem described above changes a transparency mode of a display by detecting a gaze direction of the user, then capturing images of the real world to integrate with the rendered image. Such a method relies on the user first acknowledging that there is someone to communicate with in order for the user to want to change their gaze direction. Additionally, the decision to modify the transparency affects the legibility of the augmentation. This results in an undesirable experience for the augmented reality user.